LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO 


ff- 


Optimism 

an 


tytltn  teller 

aut&or  of 


C.  P.  Crotoeli  anD  Company 


Copyright,  1903,  by  Helen  Keller 
Published  November,  1903 


D.  B.  Updike,  The  Merrymount  Press,  Boston 


Co  £@p  Ceac&er 


Contents 


Parti 

Optimism  Within  II 

Part  ii 

Optimism  Without  25 

Part  Hi 

The  Practice  of  Optimism  53 


t 


aOULD  we  choose  our  envi- 
ronment, and  were  desire  in 
human  undertakings  synon- 
ymous with  endowment,  all  men 
would,  I  suppose,  be  optimists.  Cer- 
tainly most  of  us  regard  happiness 
as  the  proper  end  of  all  earthly  en- 
terprise. The  will  to  be  happy  ani- 
mates alike  the  philosopher,  the 
prince  and  the  chimney-sweep.  No 
matter  how  dull,  or  how  mean,  or 
how  wise  a  man  is,  he  feels  that  hap- 
piness is  his  indisputable  right. 
It  is  curious  to  observe  what  differ- 

ii 


€>ptimf$m 


ent  ideals  of  happiness  people  cher- 
ish, and  in  what  singular  places  they 
look  for  this  well-spring  of  their  life. 
Many  look  for  it  in  the  hoarding  of 
riches,  some  in  the  pride  of  power, 
and  others  in  the  achievements  of 
art  and  literature ;  a  few  seek  it  in 
the  exploration  of  their  own  minds, 
or  in  the  search  for  knowledge. 

Most  people  measure  their  happi- 
ness in  terms  of  physical  pleasure 
and  material  possession.  Could  they 
win  some  visible  goal  which  they 
have  set  on  the  horizon,  how  happy 
they  would  be !  Lacking  this  gift  or 
that  circumstance,  they  would  be 
miserable.  If  happiness  is  to  be  so 
measured,  I  who  cannot  hear  or  see 
have  every  reason  to  sit  in  a  corner 
with  folded  hands  and  weep.  If  I  am 
happy  in  spite  of  my  deprivations,  if 
my  happiness  is  so  deep  that  it  is  a 
faith,  so  thoughtful  that  it  becomes 
a  philosophy  of  life, -if,  in  short,  I 
12 


am  an  optimist,  my  testimony  to  the 
creed  of  optimism  is  worth  hearing. 
As  sinners  stand  up  in  meeting  and 
testify  to  the  goodness  of  God,  so  one 
who  is  called  afflicted  may  rise  up  in 
gladness  of  conviction  and  testify  to 
the  goodness  of  life. 

Once  I  knew  the  depth  where  no 
hope  was,  and  darkness  lay  on  the 
face  of  all  things.  Then  love  came 
and  set  my  soul  free.  Once  I  knew 
only  darkness  and  stillness.  Now  I 
know  hope  and  joy.  Once  I  fretted 
and  beat  myself  against  the  wall  that 
shut  me  in.  Now  I  rejoice  in  the  con- 
sciousness that  I  can  think,  act  and 
attain  heaven.  My  life  was  without 
past  or  future ;  death,  the  pessimist 
would  say,  "a  consummation  de- 
voutly to  be  wished."  But  a  little 
word  from  the  fingers  of  another  fell 
into  my  hand  that  clutched  at  empti- 
ness, and  my  heart  leaped  to  the  rap- 
ture of  living.  Night  fled  before  the 

13 


day  of  thought,  and  love  and  joy  and 
hope  came  up  in  a  passion  of  obedi- 
ence to  knowledge.  Can  any  one  who 
has  escaped  such  captivity,  who  has 
felt  the  thrill  and  glory  of  freedom, 
be  a  pessimist? 

My  early  experience  was  thus  a 
leap  from  bad  to  good.  If  I  tried,  I 
could  not  check  the  momentum  of 
my  first  leap  out  of  the  dark ;  to  move 
breast  forward  is  a  habit  learned  sud- 
denly at  that  first  moment  of  release 
and  rush  into  the  light.  With  the  first 
word  I  used  intelligently,  I  learned 
to  live,  to  think,  to  hope.  Darkness 
cannot  shut  me  in  again.  I  have  had 
a  glimpse  of  the  shore,  and  can  now 
live  by  the  hope  of  reaching  it. 

So  my  optimism  is  no  mild  and  un- 
reasoning satisfaction.  A  poet  once 
said  I  must  be  happy  because  I  did 
not  see  the  bare,  cold  present,  but 
lived  in  a  beautiful  dream.  I  do  live 
in  a  beautiful  dream ;  but  that  dream 
14 


is  the  actual,  the  present,— not  cold, 
but  warm;  not  bare,  but  furnished 
with  a  thousand  blessings.  The  very 
evil  which  the  poet  supposed  would 
be  a  cruel  disillusionment  is  neces- 
sary to  the  fullest  knowledge  of  joy. 
Only  by  contact  with  evil  could  I 
have  learned  to  feel  by  contrast  the 
beauty  of  truth  and  love  and  good- 
ness. 

It  is  a  mistake  always  to  contem- 
plate the  good  and  ignore  the  evil, 
because  by  making  people  neglect- 
ful it  lets  in  disaster.  There  is  a  dan- 
gerous optimism  of  ignorance  and 
indifference.  It  is  not  enough  to  say 
that  the  twentieth  century  is  the 
best  age  in  the  history  of  mankind, 
and  to  take  refuge  from  the  evils  of 
the  world  in  skyey  dreams  of  good. 
How  many  good  men,  prosperous 
and  contented,  looked  around  and 
saw  naught  but  good,  while  millions 
of  their  fell  owmen  were  bartered  and 

15 


€>pttmtem 


sold  like  cattle!  No  doubt,  there  were 
comfortable  optimists  who  thought 
Wilberforce  a  meddlesome  fanatic 
when  he  was  working  with  might 
and  main  to  free  the  slaves.  I  dis- 
trust the  rash  optimism  in  this  coun- 
try that  cries,  " Hurrah,  we're  all 
right !  This  is  the  greatest  nation  on 
earth,"  when  there  are  grievances 
that  call  loudly  for  redress.  That  is 
false  optimism.  Optimism  that  does 
not  count  the  cost  is  like  a  house 
builded  on  sand.  A  man  must  under- 
stand evil  and  be  acquainted  with 
sorrow  before  he  can  write  himself 
an  optimist  and  expect  others  to  be- 
lieve that  he  has  reason  for  the  faith 
that  is  in  him. 

I  know  what  evil  is.  Once  or  twice 
I  have  wrestled  with  it,  and  for  a  time 
felt  its  chilling  touch  on  my  life ;  so 
I  speak  with  knowledge  when  I  say 
that  evil  is  of  no  consequence,  ex- 
cept as  a  sort  of  mental  gymnastic. 
16 


For  the  very  reason  that  I  have  come 
in  contact  with  it,  I  am  more  truly  an 
optimist.  I  can  say  with  conviction 
that  the  struggle  which  evil  neces- 
sitates is  one  of  the  greatest  bless- 
ings. It  makes  us  strong,  patient, 
helpful  men  and  women.  It  lets  us 
into  the  soul  of  things  and  teaches 
us  that  although  the  world  is  full  of 
suffering,  it  is  full  also  of  the  over- 
coming of  it.  My  optimism,  then,  does 
not  rest  on  the  absence  of  evil,  but 
on  a  glad  belief  in  the  preponderance 
of  good  and  a  willing  effort  always 
to  cooperate  with  the  good,  that  it 
may  prevail.  I  try  to  increase  the 
power  God  has  given  me  to  see  the 
best  in  everything  and  every  one, 
and  make  that  Best  a  part  of  my  life. 
The  world  is  sown  with  good;  but 
unless  I  turn  my  glad  thoughts  into 
practical  living  and  till  my  own  field, 
I  cannot  reap  a  kernel  of  the  good. 
Thus  my  optimism  is  grounded  in 

17 


two  worlds,  myself  and  what  is  about 
me.  I  demand  that  the  world  be  good, 
and  lo,  it  obeys.  I  proclaim  the  world 
good,  and  facts  range  themselves  to 
prove  my  proclamation  overwhelm- 
ingly true.  To  what  is  good  I  open 
the  doors  of  my  being,  and  jealously 
shut  them  against  what  is  bad.  Such 
is  the  force  of  this  beautiful  and  wil- 
ful conviction,  it  carries  itself  in  the 
face  of  all  opposition.  I  am  never  dis- 
couraged by  absence  of  good.  I  never 
can  be  argued  into  hopelessness. 
Doubt  and  mistrust  are  the  mere 
panic  of  timid  imagination,  which 
the  steadfast  heart  will  conquer,  and 
the  large  mind  transcend. 

As  my  college  days  draw  to  a  close, 
I  find  myself  looking  forward  with 
beating  heart  and  bright  anticipa- 
tions to  what  the  future  holds  of  ac- 
tivity for  me.  My  share  in  the  work 
of  the  world  may  be  limited ;  but  the 
fact  that  it  is  work  makes  it  precious. 
18 


Nay,  the  desire  and  will  to  work  is 
optimism  itself. 

Two  generations  ago  Carlyle  flung 
forth  his  gospel  of  work.  To  the 
dreamers  of  the  Revolution,  who 
built  cloud-castles  of  happiness,  and, 
when  the  inevitable  winds  rent  the 
castles  asunder,  turned  pessimists 
—to  those  ineffectual  Endymions, 
Alastors  and  Werthers,  this  Scots 
peasant,  man  of  dreams  in  the  hard, 
practical  world,  cried  aloud  his  creed 
of  labor.  "Be  no  longer  a  Chaos,  but 
a  World.  Produce !  produce !  Were  it 
but  the  pitifullest  infinitesimal  frac- 
tion of  a  product,  produce  it,  in  God's 
name!  'Tis  the  utmost  thou  hast  in 
thee ;  out  with  it,  then.  Up,  up !  what- 
soever thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it 
with  thy  whole  might.  Work  while 
itiscalledTo-day;forthe  Night  com- 
eth  wherein  no  man  may  work." 

Some  have  said  Carlyle  was  tak- 
ing refuge  from  a  hard  world  by  bid- 

19 


ding  men  grind  and  toil,  eyes  to  the 
earth,  and  so  forget  their  misery. 
This  is  not  Carlyle's  thought. ' '  Fool ! " 
he  cries,  "the  Ideal  is  in  thyself;  the 
Impediment  is  also  in  thyself.  Work 
out  the  Ideal  in  the  poor,  miserable 
Actual;  live,  think,  believe,  and  be 
free!"  It  is  plain  what  he  says,  that 
work,  production,  brings  life  out  of 
chaos,  makes  the  individual  a  world, 
an  order;  and  order  is  optimism. 

I,  too,  can  work,  and  because  I  love 
to  labor  with  my  head  and  my  hands, 
I  am  an  optimist  in  spite  of  all.  I  used 
to  think  I  should  be  thwarted  in  my 
desire  to  do  something  useful.  But 
I  have  found  out  that  though  the 
ways  in  which  I  can  make  myself 
useful  are  few,  yet  the  work  open  to 
me  is  endless.  The  gladdest  laborer 
in  the  vineyard  may  be  a  cripple. 
Even  should  the  others  outstrip  him, 
yet  the  vineyard  ripens  in  the  sun 
each  year,  and  the  full  clusters  weigh 
20 


into  his  hand.  Darwin  could  work 
only  half  an  hour  at  a  time ;  yet  in 
many  diligent  half-hours  he  laid 
anew  the  foundations  of  philosophy. 
I  long  to  accomplish  a  great  and  no- 
ble task;  but  it  is  my  chief  duty  and 
joy  to  accomplish  humble  tasks  as 
though  they  were  great  and  noble. 
It  is  my  service  to  think  how  I  can 
best  fulfil  the  demands  that  each  day 
makes  upon  me,  and  to  rejoice  that 
others  can  do  what  I  cannot.  Green, 
the  historian,1  tells  us  that  the  world 
is  moved  along,  not  only  by  the 
mighty  shoves  of  its  heroes,  but  also 
by  the  aggregate  of  the  tiny  pushes 
of  each  honest  worker;  and  that 
thought  alone  suffices  to  guide  me  in 
this  dark  world  and  wide.  I  love  the 
good  that  others  do ;  for  their  activity 
is  an  assurance  that  whether  I  can 
help  or  not,  the  true  and  the  good 

1  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Richard  Green.  Edited  by 
Leslie  Stephen. 

21 


will  stand  sure. 

I  trust,  and  nothing  that  happens 
disturbs  my  trust.  I  recognize  the 
beneficence  of  the  power  which  we 
all  worship  as  supreme— Order,  Fate, 
the  Great  Spirit,  Nature,  God.  I  re- 
cognize this  power  in  the  sun  that 
makes  all  things  grow  and  keeps  life 
afoot.  I  make  a  friend  of  this  inde- 
finable force,  and  straightway  I  feel 
glad,  brave  and  ready  for  any  lot 
Heaven  may  decree  for  me.  This  is 
my  religion  of  optimism. 


22 


it*  flDptimtem 


if 
€>ptimi$m 

OPTIMISM,  then,  is  a  fact 
within  my  own  heart.  But  as 
I  look  out  upon  life,  my  heart 
meets  no  contradiction.  The  out- 
ward world  justifies  my  inward  uni- 
verse of  good.  All  through  the  years 
I  have  spent  in  college,  my  reading 
has  been  a  continuous  discovery  of 
good.  In  literature,  philosophy,  reli- 
gion and  history  I  find  the  mighty 
witnesses  to  my  faith. 

Philosophy  is  the  history  of  a  deaf- 
blind  person  writ  large.  From  the 
talks  of  Socrates  up  through  Plato, 

25 


Berkeley  and  Kant,  philosophy  re- 
cords the  efforts  of  human  intelli- 
gence to  be  free  of  the  clogging 
material  world  and  fly  forth  into  a 
universe  of  pure  idea.  A  deaf-blind 
person  ought  to  find  special  mean- 
ing in  Plato's  Ideal  World.  These 
things  which  you  see  and  hear  and 
touch  are  not  the  reality  of  realities, 
but  imperfect  manifestations  of  the 
Idea,  the  Principle,  the  Spiritual  ;the 
Idea  is  the  truth,  the  rest  is  delusion. 
If  this  be  so,  my  brethren  who 
enjoy  the  fullest  use  of  the  senses 
are  not  aware  of  any  reality  which 
may  not  equally  well  be  in  reach  of 
my  mind.  Philosophy  gives  to  the 
mind  the  prerogative  of  seeing  truth, 
and  bears  us  into  a  realm  where  I, 
who  am  blind,  am  not  different  from 
you  who  see.  When  I  learned  from 
Berkeley  that  your  eyes  receive  an 
inverted  image  of  things  which  your 
brain  unconsciously  corrects,  I  be- 
26 


gan  to  suspect  that  the  eye  is  not  a 
very  reliable  instrument  after  all,  and 
I  felt  as  one  who  had  been  restored 
to  equality  with  others,  glad,  not  be- 
cause the  senses  avail  them  so  little, 
but  because  in  God's  eternal  world, 
mind  and  spirit  avail  so  much.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  philosophy  had 
been  written  for  my  special  conso- 
lation, whereby  I  get  even  with  some 
modern  philosophers  who  appar- 
ently think  that  I  was  intended  as 
an  experimental  case  for  their  spe- 
cial instruction !  But  in  a  little  mea- 
sure my  small  voice  of  individual  ex- 
perience does  join  in  the  declaration 
of  philosophy  that  the  good  is  the 
only  world,  and  that  world  is  a  world 
of  spirit.  It  is  also  a  universe  where 
order  is  All,  where  an  unbroken  logic 
holds  the  parts  together,  where  dis- 
order defines  itself  as  non-existence, 
where  evil,  as  St.  Augustine  held,  is 
delusion,  and  therefore  is  not. 

27 


€>ptimigm  mttljout 


The  meaning  of  philosophy  to  me 
is  not  only  in  its  principles,  but  also 
in  the  happy  isolation  of  its  great 
expounders.  They  were  seldom  of 
the  world,  even  when  like  Plato  and 
Leibnitz  they  moved  in  its  courts 
and  drawing-rooms.  To  the  tumult 
of  life  they  were  deaf,  and  they  were 
blind  to  its  distraction  and  perplex- 
ing diversities.  Sitting  alone,  but  not 
in  darkness,  they  learned  to  find 
everything  in  themselves,  and  fail- 
ing to  find  it  even  there,  they  still 
trusted  in  meeting  the  truth  face  to 
face  when  they  should  leave  the  earth 
behind  and  become  partakers  in  the 
wisdom  of  God.  The  great  mystics 
lived  alone,  deaf  and  blind,  but  dwell- 
ing with  God. 

I  understand  how  it  was  possible 
for  Spinoza  to  find  deep  and  sus- 
tained happiness  when  he  was  ex- 
communicated, poor,  despised  and 
suspected  alike  by  Jew  and  Chris- 
28 


tian;  not  that  the  kind  world  of  men 
ever  treated  me  so,  but  that  his  iso- 
lation from  the  universe  of  sensuous 
joys  is  somewhat  analogous  to  mine. 
He  loved  the  good  for  its  own  sake. 
Like  many  great  spirits  he  accepted 
his  place  in  the  world,  and  confided 
himself  childlike  to  a  higher  power, 
believing  that  it  worked  through  his 
hands  and  predominated  in  his  be- 
ing. He  trusted  implicitly,  and  that 
is  what  I  do.  Deep,  solemn  optimism, 
it  seems  to  me,  should  spring  from 
this  firm  belief  in  the  presence  of 
God  in  the  individual ;  not  a  remote, 
unapproachable  governor  of  the  uni- 
verse, but  a  God  who  is  very  near 
every  one  of  us,  who  is  present  not 
only  in  earth,  sea  and  sky,  but  also  in 
every  pure  and  noble  impulse  of  our 
hearts,  "the  source  and  centre  of  all 
minds,  their  only  point  of  rest." 

Thus  from  philosophy  I  learn  that 
we  see  only  shadows  and  know  only 

29 


in  part,  and  that  all  things  change ; 
but  the  mind,  the  unconquerable 
mind,  compasses  all  truth,  embraces 
the  universe  as  it  is,  converts  the 
shadows  to  realities  and  makes  tu- 
multuous changes  seem  but  mo- 
ments in  an  eternal  silence,  or  short 
lines  in  the  infinite  theme  of  perfec- 
tion, and  the  evil  but  "a  halt  on  the 
way  to  good. "Though  with  my  hand 
I  grasp  only  a  small  part  of  the  uni- 
verse, with  my  spirit  I  see  the  whole, 
and  in  my  thought  I  can  compass 
the  beneficent  laws  by  which  it  is 
governed.  The  confidence  and  trust 
which  these  conceptions  inspire 
teach  me  to  rest  safe  in  my  life  as  in 
a  fate,  and  protect  me  from  spectral 
doubts  and  fears.  Verily,  blessed  are 
ye  that  have  not  seen,  and  yet  have 
believed. 

All  the  world's  great  philosophers 
have  been  lovers  of  God  and  believers 
in  man's  inner  goodness.  To  know 
30 


the  history  of  philosophy  is  to  know 
that  the  highest  thinkers  of  the  ages, 
the  seers  of  the  tribes  and  the  na- 
tions, have  been  optimists. 

The  growth  of  philosophy  is  the 
story  of  man's  spiritual  life.  Outside 
lies  that  great  mass  of  events  which 
we  call  History.  As  I  look  on  this 
mass,  I  see  it  take  form  and  shape 
itself  in  the  ways  of  God.  The  history 
of  man  is  an  epic  of  progress.  In  the 
world  within  and  the  world  without 
I  see  a  wonderful  correspondence, 
a  glorious  symbolism  which  reveals 
the  human  and  the  divine  commun- 
ing together,  the  lesson  of  philoso- 
phy repeated  in  fact.  In  all  the  parts 
that  compose  the  history  of  mankind 
hides  the  spirit  of  good,  and  gives 
meaning  to  the  whole. 

Far  back  in  the  twilight  of  his- 
tory I  see  the  savage  fleeing  from 
the  forces  of  nature  which  he  has 
not  learned  to  control,  and  seeking 

31 


to  propitiate  supernatural  beings 
which  are  but  the  creation  of  his 
superstitious  fear.  With  a  shift  of 
imagination  I  see  the  savage  eman- 
cipated, civilized.  He  no  longer  wor- 
ships the  grim  deities  of  ignorance. 
Through  suffering  he  has  learned  to 
build  a  roof  over  his  head,  to  defend 
his  life  and  his  home,  and  over  his 
state  he  has  erected  a  temple  in 
which  he  worships  the  joyous  gods 
of  light  and  song.  From  suffering  he 
has  learned  justice;  from  the  strug- 
gle with  his  fellows  he  has  learned 
the  distinction  between  right  and 
wrong  which  makes  him  a  moral  be- 
ing. He  is  gifted  with  the  genius  of 
Greece. 

But  Greece  was  not  perfect.  Her 
poetical  and  religious  ideals  were 
far  above  her  practice ;  therefore  she 
died,  that  her  ideals  might  survive 
to  ennoble  coming  ages. 

Rome,  too,  left  the  world  a  rich  in- 
32 


heritance.  Through  the  vicissitudes 
of  history  her  laws  and  ordered  gov- 
ernment have  stood  a  majestic  ob- 
ject-lesson for  the  ages.  But  when 
the  stern,  frugal  character  of  herpeo- 
ple  ceased  to  be  the  bone  and  sinew 
of  her  civilization,  Rome  fell. 

Then  came  the  new  nations  of  the 
North  and  founded  a  more  permanent 
society.  The  base  of  Greek  and  Ro- 
man society  was  the  slave,  crushed 
into  the  condition  of  the  wretches 
who  "labored,  foredone,  in  the  field 
and  at  the  workshop,  like  haltered 
horses,  if  blind,  so  much  the  quieter." 
The  base  of  the  new  society  was  the 
freeman  who  fought,  tilled,  judged 
and  grew  from  more  to  more.  He 
wrought  a  state  out  of  tribal  kinship 
and  fostered  an  independence  and 
self-reliance  which  no  oppression 
could  destroy.  The  story  of  man's 
slow  ascent  from  savagery  through 
barbarism  and  self-mastery  to  civi- 

33 


lization  is  the  embodiment  of  the 
spirit  of  optimism.  From  the  first 
hour  of  the  new  nations  each  cen- 
tury has  seen  a  better  Europe,  until 
the  development  of  the  world  de- 
manded America. 

Tolstoi  said  the  other  day  that 
America,  once  the  hope  of  the  world, 
was  in  bondage  to  Mammon.  Tolstoi 
and  other  Europeans  have  still  much 
to  learn  about  this  great,  free  coun- 
try of  ours  before  they  understand 
the  unique  civic  struggle  which 
America  is  undergoing.  She  is  con- 
fronted with  the  mighty  task  of  as- 
similating all  the  foreigners  that  are 
drawn  together  from  every  country, 
and  welding  them  into  one  people 
with  one  national  spirit.  We  have 
the  right  to  demand  the  forbearance 
of  critics  until  the  United  States  has 
demonstrated  whether  she  can  make 
one  people  out  of  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth.  London  economists  are 
34 


alarmed  at  less  than  five  hundred 
thousand  foreign-born  in  a  popula- 
tion of  six  million,  and  discuss  earn- 
estly the  danger  of  too  many  aliens. 
But  what  is  their  problem  in  compar- 
ison with  that  of  New  York,  which 
counts  nearly  one  million  five  hun- 
dred thousand  foreigners  among  its 
three  and  a  half  million  citizens? 
Think  of  it!  Every  third  person  in 
our  American  metropolis  is  an  alien. 
By  these  figures  alone  America's 
greatness  can  be  measured. 

It  is  true,  America  has  devoted  her- 
self largely  to  the  solution  of  mate- 
rial problems -breaking  the  fields, 
opening  mines,  irrigating  deserts, 
spanning  the  continent  with  rail- 
roads ;  but  she  is  doing  these  things 
in  a  new  way,  by  educating  her  peo- 
ple, by  placing  at  the  service  of  every 
man's  need  every  resource  of  human 
skill.  She  is  transmuting  her  indus- 
trial wealth  into  the  education  of  her 

35 


flHitljout 


workmen,  so  that  unskilled  people 
shall  have  no  place  in  American  life, 
so  that  all  men  shall  bring  mind  and 
soul  to  the  control  of  matter.  Her 
children  are  not  drudges  and  slaves. 
The  Constitution  has  declared  it,  and 
the  spirit  of  our  institutions  has  con- 
firmed it.The  best  the  land  can  teach 
them  they  shall  know.  They  shall 
learn  that  there  is  no  upper  class 
in  their  country,  and  no  lower,  and 
they  shall  understand  how  it  is  that 
God  and  His  world  are  for  everybody. 
America  might  do  all  this,  and  still 
be  selfish,  still  be  a  worshipper  of 
Mammon.  But  Americais  the  home  of 
charity  as  well  as  of  commerce.  In  the 
midst  of  roaring  traffic,  side  by  side 
with  noisy  factory  and  sky-reach- 
ing warehouse,  one  sees  the  school, 
the  library,  the  hospital,  the  park- 
works  of  public  benevolence  which 
represent  wealth  wrought  into  ideas 
that  shall  endure  forever.  Behold 
36 


what  America  has  already  done  to 
alleviate  suffering  and  restore  the 
afflicted  to  society -given  sight  to 
the  fingers  of  the  blind,  language  to 
the  dumb  lip,  and  mind  to  the  idiot 
clay,  and  tell  me  if  indeed  she  wor- 
ships Mammon  only.  Who  shall  mea- 
sure the  sympathy,  skill  and  intelli- 
gence with  which  she  ministers  to 
all  who  come  to  her,  and  lessens  the 
ever-swelling  tide  of  poverty,  misery 
and  degradation  which  every  year 
rolls  against  her  gates  from  all  the 
nations? 

When  I  reflect  on  all  these  facts, 
I  cannot  but  think  that,  Tolstoi  and 
other  theorists  to  the  contrary,  it  is 
a  splendid  thing  to  be  an  American. 
In  America  the  optimist  finds  abun- 
dant reason  for  confidence  in  the 
present  and  hope  for  the  future,  and 
this  hope,  this  confidence,  may  well 
extend  over  all  the  great  nations  of 
the  earth. 

37 


If  we  compare  our  own  time  with 
the  past,  we  find  in  modern  statistics 
a  solid  foundation  for  a  confident  and 
buoyant  world-optimism.  Beneath 
the  doubt,  the  unrest,  the  material- 
ism, which  surround  us  still  glows 
and  burns  at  the  world's  best  life  a 
steadfast  faith.  To  hear  the  pessi- 
mist, one  would  think  civilization 
had  bivouacked  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  had  not  had  marching  orders 
since.  He  does  not  realize  that  the 
progress  of  evolution  is  not  an  unin- 
terrupted march. 

"Now  touching  goal,  now  backward  hurl'd, 
Toils  the  indomitable  world." 

I  have  recently  read  an  address  by 
one  whose  knowledge  it  would  be 
presumptuous  to  challenge.1  In  it  I 
find  abundant  evidence  of  progress. 

During  the  past  fifty  years  crime 
has  decreased.  True,  the  records  of 

1  Address  by  the  Hon.  Carroll  D.  Wright  before  the 
Unitarian  Conference,  September,  1903. 

38 


to-day  contain  a  longer  list  of  crime. 
But  our  statistics  are  more  complete 
and  accurate  than  the  statistics  of 
times  past.  Besides,  there  are  many 
offences  on  the  list  which  half  a 
century  ago  would  not  have  been 
thought  of  as  crimes.  This  shows 
that  the  public  conscience  is  more 
sensitive  than  it  ever  was. 

Our  definition  of  crime  has  grown 
stricter,  our  punishment  of  it  more 
lenient  and  intelligent.  The  old  feel- 
ing of  revenge  has  largely  disap- 
peared. It  is  no  longer  an  eye  for  an 
eye,  a  tooth  for  a  tooth.  The  criminal 
is  treated  as  one  who  is  diseased.  He 
is  confined  not  merely  for  punish- 
ment, but  because  he  is  a  menace  to 
society.  While  he  is  under  restraint, 
he  is  treated  with  humane  care  and 
disciplined  so  that  his  mind  shall  be 
cured  of  its  disease,  and  he  shall  be 
restored  to  society  able  to  do  his  part 
of  its  work. 

39 


€>ptimigm 


Another  sign  of  awakened  and  en- 
lightened public  conscience  is  the 
effort  to  provide  the  working-class 
with  better  houses.  Did  it  occur  to 
any  one  a  hundred  years  ago  to  think 
whether  the  dwellings  of  the  poor 
were  sanitary,  convenient  or  sunny? 
Do  not  forget  that  in  the  "good  old 
times"  cholera  and  typhus  devas- 
tated whole  counties,  and  that  pesti- 
lence walked  abroad  in  the  capitals 
of  Europe. 

Not  only  have  our  laboring-classes 
better  houses  and  better  places  to 
work  in;  but  employers  recognize 
the  right  of  the  employed  to  seek 
more  than  the  bare  wage  of  exis- 
tence. In  the  darkness  and  turmoil 
of  our  modern  industrial  strifes  we 
discern  but  dimly  the  principles  that 
underlie  the  struggle.  The  recogni- 
tion of  the  right  of  all  men  to  life, 
liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness, 
a  spirit  of  conciliation  such  as  Burke 
40 


dreamed  of,  the  willingness  on  the 
part  of  the  strong  to  make  conces- 
sions to  the  weak,  the  realization 
that  the  rights  of  the  employer  are 
bound  up  in  the  rights  of  the  em- 
ployed-in  these  the  optimist  be- 
holds the  signs  of  our  times. 

Another  right  which  the  State 
has  recognized  as  belonging  to  each 
man  is  the  right  to  an  education.  In 
the  enlightened  parts  of  Europe  and 
in  America  every  city,  every  town, 
every  village,  has  its  school ;  and  it 
is  no  longer  a  class  who  have  access 
to  knowledge,  for  to  the  children  of 
the  poorest  laborer  the  school-door 
stands  open.  From  the  civilized  na- 
tions universal  education  is  driving 
the  dull  host  of  illiteracy. 

Education  broadens  to  include  all 
men,  and  deepens  to  reach  all  truths. 
Scholars  are  no  longer  confined  to 
Greek,  Latin  and  mathematics,  but 
they  also  study  science ;  and  science 

41 


mtt^out 


converts  the  dreams  of  the  poet,  the 
theory  of  the  mathematician  and  the 
fiction  of  the  economist  into  ships, 
hospitals  and  instruments  that  en- 
able one  skilled  hand  to  perform  the 
work  of  a  thousand.  The  student  of 
to-day  is  not  asked  if  he  has  learned 
his  grammar.  Is  he  a  mere  grammar- 
machine,  adry  catalogue  of  scientific 
facts,  or  has  he  acquired  the  quali- 
ties of  manliness?  His  supreme  les- 
son is  to  grapple  with  great  public 
questions,  to  keep  his  mind  hospi- 
table to  new  ideas  and  new  views  of 
truth,  to  restore  the  finer  ideals  that 
are  lost  sight  of  in  the  struggle  for 
wealth  and  to  promote  justice  be- 
tween man  and  man.  He  learns  that 
there  may  be  substitutes  for  human 
labor— horse-power  and  machinery 
and  books ;  but  "there  are  no  substi- 
tutes for  common  sense,  patience, 
integrity,  courage." 
Who  can  doubt  the  vastness  of  the 
42 


achievements  of  education  when  one 
considers  how  different  the  condi- 
tion of  the  blind  and  the  deaf  is  from 
what  it  was  a  century  ago?  They 
were  then  objects  of  superstitious 
pity,  and  shared  the  lowest  beg- 
gar's lot.  Everybody  looked  upon 
their  case  as  hopeless,  and  this  view 
plunged  them  deeper  in  despair. The 
blind  themselves  laughed  in  the  face 
of  Haiiy  when  he  offered  to  teach 
them  to  read.  How  pitiable  is  the 
cramped  sense  of  imprisonment  in 
circumstances  which  teaches  men  to 
expect  no  good  and  to  treat  any  at- 
tempt to  relieve  them  as  the  vagary 
of  a  disordered  mind !  But  now,  be- 
hold the  transformation ;  see  how  in- 
stitutions and  industrial  establish- 
ments for  the  blind  have  sprung  up 
as  if  by  magic ;  see  how  many  of  the 
deaf  have  learned  not  only  to  read 
and  write,  but  to  speak ;  and  remem- 
ber that  the  faith  and  patience  of  Dr. 

43 


Howe  have  borne  fruit  in  the  efforts 
that  are  being  made  everywhere  to 
educate  the  deaf-blind  and  equip 
them  for  the  struggle.  Do  you  won- 
der that  I  am  full  of  hope  and  lifted 
up? 

The  highest  result  of  education  is 
tolerance.  Long  ago  men  fought  and 
died  for  their  faith ;  but  it  took  ages 
to  teach  them  the  other  kind  of  cour- 
age,—the  courage  to  recognize  the 
faiths  of  their  brethren  and  their 
rights  of  conscience.  Tolerance  is 
the  first  principle  of  community;  it 
is  the  spirit  which  conserves  the  best 
that  all  men  think.  No  loss  by  flood 
and  lightning,  no  destruction  of  cit- 
ies and  temples  by  the  hostile  forces 
of  nature,  has  deprived  man  of  so 
many  noble  lives  and  impulses  as 
those  which  his  intolerance  has  de- 
stroyed. 

With  wonder  and  sorrow  I  go  back 
in  thought  to  the  ages  of  intolerance 
44 


€>ptimigm 


and  bigotry.  I  see  Jesus  received  with 
scorn  and  nailed  on  the  cross.  I  see 
his  followers  hounded  and  tortured 
and  burned.  I  am  present  where  the 
finer  spirits  that  revolt  from  the  su- 
perstition of  the  Middle  Ages  are  ac- 
cused of  impiety  and  stricken  down. 
I  behold  the  children  of  Israel  re- 
viled and  persecuted  unto  death  by 
those  who  pretend  Christianity  with 
the  tongue ;  I  see  them  driven  from 
land  to  land,  hunted  from  refuge 
to  refuge,  summoned  to  the  felon's 
place,  exposed  to  the  whip,  mocked 
as  they  utter  amid  the  pain  of  mar- 
tyrdom a  confession  of  the  faith 
which  they  have  kept  with  such 
splendid  constancy.  The  same  bigo- 
try that  oppresses  the  Jews  falls 
tiger-like  upon  Christian  noncon- 
formists of  purest  lives  and  wipes 
out  the  Albigenses  and  the  peaceful 
Vaudois,  "whose  bones  lie  on  the 
mountains  cold."  I  see  the  clouds 

45 


part  slowly,  and  I  hear  a  cry  of  pro- 
test against  the  bigot.  The  restrain- 
ing hand  of  tolerance  is  laid  upon  the 
inquisitor,  and  the  humanist  utters  a 
message  of  peace  to  the  persecuted. 
Instead  of  the  cry,  "Burn  the  here- 
tic ! "  men  study  the  human  soul  with 
sympathy,  and  there  enters  into  their 
hearts  a  new  reverence  for  that 
which  is  unseen. 

The  idea  of  brotherhood  redawns 
upon  the  world  with  a  broader  sig- 
nificance than  the  narrow  associa- 
tion of  members  in  a  sect  or  creed ; 
and  thinkers  of  great  soul  like  Les- 
sing  challenge  the  world  to  say 
which  is  more  godlike,  the  hatred 
and  tooth-and-nail  grapple  of  con- 
flicting religions,  or  sweet  accord 
and  mutual  helpfulness.  Ancient  pre- 
judice of  man  against  his  brother- 
man  wavers  and  retreats  before  the 
radiance  of  a  more  generous  senti- 
ment, which  will  not  sacrifice  men  to 
46 


forms,  or  rob  them  of  the  comfort  and 
strength  they  find  in  their  own  be- 
liefs. The  heresy  of  one  age  becomes 
the  orthodoxy  of  the  next.  Mere  tol- 
erance has  given  place  to  a  senti- 
ment of  brotherhood  between  sin- 
cere men  of  all  denominations.  The 
optimist  rejoices  in  the  affectionate 
sympathy  between  Catholic  heart 
and  Protestant  heart  which  finds  a 
gratifying  expression  in  the  univer- 
sal respect  and  warm  admiration  for 
Leo  XIII  on  the  part  of  good  men 
the  world  over.  The  centenary  cele- 
brations of  the  births  of  Emerson 
and  Channing  are  beautiful  exam- 
ples of  the  tribute  which  men  of  all 
creeds  pay  to  the  memory  of  a  pure 
soul. 

Thus  in  my  outlook  upon  our  times 
I  find  that  I  am  glad  to  be  a  citizen 
of  the  world,  and  as  I  regard  my 
country,  I  find  that  to  be  an  Ameri- 
can is  to  be  an  optimist.  I  know  the 

47 


unhappy  and  unrighteous  story  of 
what  has  been  done  in  the  Philip- 
pines beneath  our  flag;  but  I  believe 
that  in  the  accidents  of  statecraft  the 
best  intelligence  of  the  people  some- 
times fails  to  express  itself.  I  read  in 
the  history  of  Julius  Caesar  that  dur- 
ing the  civil  wars  there  were  mil- 
lions of  peaceful  herdsmen  and  la- 
borers who  worked  as  long  as  they 
could,  and  fled  before  the  advance 
of  the  armies  that  were  led  by  the 
few,  then  waited  until  the  danger 
was  past,  and  returned  to  repair 
damages  with  patient  hands.  So  the 
people  are  patient  and  honest,  while 
their  rulers  stumble.  I  rejoice  to  see 
in  the  world  and  in  this  country  a 
new  and  better  patriotism  than  that 
which  seeks  the  life  of  an  enemy.  It 
is  a  patriotism  higher  than  that  of 
the  battle-field.  It  moves  thousands 
to  lay  down  their  lives  in  social  ser- 
vice, and  every  life  so  laid  down 
48 


brings  us  a  step  nearer  the  time 
when  corn-fields  shall  no  more  be 
fields  of  battle.  So  when  I  heard  of 
the  cruel  fighting  in  the  Philippines, 
I  did  not  despair,  because  I  knew 
that  the  hearts  of  our  people  were 
not  in  that  fight,  and  that  sometime 
the  hand  of  the  destroyer  must  be 
stayed. 


49 


HI  C^e  practice  of  flDptf  mtem 


iff 
practice  of 

a  HE  test  of  all  beliefs  is  their 
practical  effect  in  life.  If  it  be 
true  that  optimism  compels 
the  world  forward,  and  pessimism 
retards  it,  then  it  is  dangerous  to 
propagate  a  pessimistic  philosophy. 
One  who  believes  that  the  pain  in 
the  world  outweighs  the  joy,  and 
expresses  that  unhappy  conviction, 
only  adds  to  the  pain.  Schopenhauer 
is  an  enemy  to  the  race.  Even  if  he 
earnestly  believed  that  this  is  the 
most  wretched  of  possible  worlds, 
he  should  not  promulgate  a  doctrine 

53 


$ractfce  of  flDptfmfgm 

which  robs  men  of  the  incentive  to 
fight  with  circumstance.  If  Life  gave 
him  ashes  for  bread,  it  was  his  fault. 
Life  is  a  fair  field,  and  the  right  will 
prosper  if  we  stand  by  our  guns. 

Let  pessimism  once  take  hold  of 
the  mind,  and  life  is  all  topsy-turvy,  all 
vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit.  There 
is  no  cure  for  individual  or  social  dis- 
order, except  in  forgetfulness  and 
annihilation.  "Let  us  eat,  drink  and 
be  merry,"  says  the  pessimist,  "for 
to-morrow  we  die."  If  I  regarded  my 
life  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  pes- 
simist, I  should  be  undone.  I  should 
seek  in  vain  for  the  light  that  does 
not  visit  my  eyes  and  the  music  that 
does  not  ring  in  my  ears.  I  should  beg 
night  and  day  and  never  be  satisfied. 
I  should  sit  apart  in  awful  solitude,  a 
prey  to  fear  and  despair.  But  since  I 
consider  it  a  duty  to  myself  and  to 
others  to  be  happy,  I  escape  a  misery 
worse  than  any  physical  deprivation. 
54 


Who  shall  dare  let  his  incapacity 
for  hope  or  goodness  cast  a  shadow 
upon  the  courage  of  those  who  bear 
their  burdens  as  if  they  were  privi- 
leges ?The  optimist  cannot  fall  back, 
cannot  falter ;  for  he  knows  his  neigh- 
bor will  be  hindered  by  his  failure  to 
keep  in  line.  He  will  therefore  hold 
his  place  fearlessly  and  remember 
the  duty  of  silence.  Sufficient  unto 
each  heart  is  its  own  sorrow.  He 
will  take  the  iron  claws  of  circum- 
stance in  his  hand  and  use  them  as 
tools  to  break  away  the  obstacles 
that  block  his  path.  He  will  work  as 
if  upon  him  alone  depended  the  es- 
tablishment of  heaven  on  earth. 

We  have  seen  that  the  world's  phi- 
losophers-the  Sayers  of  the  Word 
—were  optimists;  so  also  are  the 
men  of  action  and  achievement— the 
Doers  of  the  Word.  Dr.  Howe  found 
his  way  to  Laura  Bridgman's  soul 
because  he  began  with  the  belief 

55 


€l)e  practice 


that  he  could  reach  it.  English  jurists 
had  said  that  the  deaf-blind  were 
idiots  in  the  eyes  of  the  law.  Behold 
what  the  optimist  does.  He  contro- 
verts a  hard  legal  axiom  ;  he  looks 
behind  the  dull  impassive  clay  and 
sees  a  human  soul  in  bondage,  and 
quietly,  resolutely  sets  about  its  de- 
liverance. His  efforts  are  victorious. 
He  creates  intelligence  out  of  idiocy 
and  proves  to  the  law  that  the  deaf- 
blind  man  is  a  responsible  being. 

When  Haiiy  offered  to  teach  the 
blind  to  read,  he  was  met  by  pessi- 
mism that  laughed  at  his  folly.  Had 
he  not  believed  that  the  soul  of  man 
is  mightier  than  the  ignorance  that 
fetters  it,  had  he  not  been  an  opti- 
mist, he  would  not  have  turned  the 
fingers  of  the  blind  into  new  instru- 
ments. No  pessimist  ever  discovered 
the  secrets  of  the  stars,  or  sailed  to 
an  uncharted  land,  or  opened  a  new 
heaven  to  the  human  spirit.  St.  Ber- 
56 


practice 


nard  was  so  deeply  an  optimist  that 
he  believed  two  hundred  and  fifty  en- 
lightened men  could  illuminate  the 
darkness  which  overwhelmed  the 
period  of  the  Crusades  ;  and  the  light 
of  his  faith  broke  like  a  new  day  up- 
on western  Europe.  John  Bosco,  the 
benefactor  of  the  poor  and  the  friend- 
less of  Italian  cities,  was  another 
optimist,  another  prophet  who,  per- 
ceiving a  Divine  Idea  while  it  was 
yet  afar,  proclaimed  it  to  his  coun- 
trymen. Although  they  laughed  at 
his  vision  and  called  him  a  madman, 
yet  he  worked  on  patiently,  and  with 
the  labor  of  his  hands  he  maintained 
a  home  for  little  street  waifs.  In  the 
fervor  of  enthusiasm  he  predicted  the 
wonderful  movement  which  should 
result  from  his  work.  Even  in  the 
days  before  he  had  money  or  patron- 
age, he  drew  glowing  pictures  of  the 
splendid  system  of  schools  and  hos- 
pitals which  should  spread  from  one 

57 


practice  of  €>ptimf$m 

end  of  Italy  to  the  other,  and  he  lived 
to  see  the  organization  of  the  San 
Salvador  Society,  which  was  the 
embodiment  of  his  prophetic  opti- 
mism. When  Dr.  Seguin  declared  his 
opinion  that  the  feeble-minded  could 
be  taught,  again  people  laughed, 
and  in  their  complacent  wisdom  said 
he  was  no  better  than  an  idiot  him- 
self. But  the  noble  optimist  perse- 
vered, and  by  and  by  the  reluctant 
pessimists  saw  that  he  whom  they 
ridiculed  had  become  one  of  the 
world's  philanthropists.Thus  the  op- 
timist believes,  attempts,  achieves. 
He  stands  always  in  the  sunlight. 
Some  day  the  wonderful,  the  inex- 
pressible, arrives  and  shines  upon 
him,  and  he  is  there  to  welcome  it. 
His  soul  meets  his  own  and  beats  a 
glad  march  to  every  new  discovery, 
every  fresh  victory  over  difficulties, 
every  addition  to  human  knowledge 
and  happiness. 
58 


C^e  practice  of 


We  have  found  that  our  great  phi- 
losophers and  our  great  men  of  ac- 
tion are  optimists.  So,  too,  our  most 
potent  men  of  letters  have  been  op- 
timists in  their  books  and  in  their 
lives.  No  pessimist  ever  won  an  au- 
dience commensurately  wide  with 
his  genius,  and  many  optimistic  writ- 
ers have  been  read  and  admired  out 
of  all  measure  to  their  talents,  sim- 
ply because  they  wrote  of  the  sun- 
lit side  of  life.  Dickens,  Lamb,  Gold- 
smith, Irving,  all  the  well-beloved 
and  gentle  humorists,  were  opti- 
mists. Swift,  the  pessimist,  has  never 
had  as  many  readers  as  his  tower- 
ing genius  should  command,  and  in^ 
deed,  when  he  comes  down  into  our 
century  and  meets  Thackeray,  that 
generous  optimist  can  hardly  do  him 
justice.  In  spite  of  the  latter-day  no- 
toriety of  the  "Rubaiyat"  of  Omar 
Khayyam,  we  may  set  it  down  as  a 
rule  that  he  who  would  be  heard 

59 


$tmtfce  of  €>ptimf$m 


must  be  a  believer,  must  have  a  fun- 
damental optimism  in  his  philoso- 
phy. He  may  bluster  and  disagree 
and  lament  as  Carlyle  and  Ruskin 
do  sometimes;  but  a  basic  confi- 
dence in  the  good  destiny  of  life  and 
of  the  world  must  underlie  his  work. 

Shakespeare  is  the  prince  of  opti- 
mists. His  tragedies  are  a  revelation 
of  moral  order.  In  "  Lear  "  and  "  Ham- 
let" there  is  a  looking  forward  to 
something  better,  some  one  is  left  at 
the  end  of  the  play  to  right  wrong, 
restore  society  and  build  the  state 
anew.  The  later  plays,  "The  Tem- 
pesf'and  "Cymbeline,"  show  a  beau- 
tiful, placid  optimism  which  delights 
in  reconciliations  and  reunions  and 
which  plans  for  the  triumph  of  ex- 
ternal as  well  as  internal  good. 

If  Browning  were  less  difficult  to 
read,  he  would  surely  be  the  domi- 
nant poet  in  this  century.  I  feel  the 
ecstasy  with  which  he  exclaims, 
60 


practice  of 


"Oh,  good  gigantic  smile  o'  the 
brown  old  earth  this  autumn  morn- 
ing!" And  how  he  sets  my  brain  go- 
ing when  he  says,  because  there  is 
imperfection,  there  must  be  perfec- 
tion ;  completeness  must  come  of  in- 
completeness ;  failure  is  an  evidence 
of  triumph  for  the  fulness  of  the  days. 
Yes,  discord  is,  that  harmony  may 
be;  pain  destroys,  that  health  may 
renew;  perhaps  I  am  deaf  and  blind 
that  others  likewise  afflicted  may 
see  and  hear  with  a  more  perfect 
sense  !  From  Browning  I  learn  that 
there  is  no  lost  good,  and  that  makes 
it  easier  for  me  to  go  at  life,  right  or 
wrong,  do  the  best  I  know,  and  fear 
not.  My  heart  responds  proudly  to 
his  exhortation  to  pay  gladly  life's 
debt  of  pain,  darkness  and  cold.  Lift 
up  your  burden,  it  is  God's  gift,  bear 
it  nobly. 

The  man  of  letters  whose  voice  is 
to  prevail  must  be  an  optimist,  and 

61 


C^e  practice  of 


his  voice  often  learns  its  message 
from  his  life.  Stevenson's  life  has  be- 
come a  tradition  only  ten  years  af- 
ter his  death  ;  he  has  taken  his  place 
among  the  heroes,  the  bravest  man 
of  letters  since  Johnson  and  Lamb. 
I  remember  an  hour  when  I  was  dis- 
couraged and  ready  to  falter.  For 
days  I  had  been  pegging  away  at  a 
task  which  refused  to  get  itself  ac- 
complished. In  the  midst  of  my  per- 
plexity I  read  an  essay  of  Stevenson 
which  made  me  feel  as  if  I  had  been 
"outing"  in  the  sunshine,  instead  of 
losing  heart  over  a  difficult  task.  I 
tried  again  with  new  courage  and 
succeeded  almost  before  I  knew  it 
I  have  failed  many  times  since  ;  but  I 
have  never  felt  so  disheartened  as  I 
did  before  that  sturdy  preacher  gave 
me  my  lesson  in  the  "fashion  of  the 
smiling  face." 

Read  Schopenhauer  and  Omar, 
and  you  will  grow  to  find  the  world  as 
62 


$ractfce 


hollow  as  they  find  it.  Read  Green's 
history  of  England,  and  the  world  is 
peopled  with  heroes.  I  never  knew 
why  Green's  history  thrilled  me  with 
the  vigor  of  romance  until  I  read  his 
biography.  Then  I  learned  how  his 
quick  imagination  transfigured  the 
hard,  bare  facts  of  life  into  new  and 
living  dreams.  When  he  and  his  wife 
were  too  poor  to  have  a  fire,  he  would 
sit  before  the  unlit  hearth  and  pre- 
tend that  it  was  ablaze.  "Drill  your 
thoughts,"  he  said;  "shut  out  the 
gloomy  and  call  in  the  bright.  There 
is  more  wisdom  in  shutting  one's 
eyes  than  your  copybook  philoso- 
phers will  allow." 

Every  optimist  moves  along  with 
progress  and  hastens  it,  while  every 
pessimist  would  keep  the  world  at 
a  standstill.  The  consequence  of 
pessimism  in  the  life  of  a  nation  is 
the  same  as  in  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual. Pessimism  kills  the  instinct 

63 


practice 


that  urges  men  to  struggle  against 
poverty,  ignorance  and  crime,  and 
dries  up  all  the  fountains  of  joy  in 
the  world.  In  imagination  I  leave 
the  country  which  lifts  up  the  man- 
hood of  the  poor  and  I  visit  India, 
the  underworld  of  fatalism—  where 
three  hundred  million  human  beings, 
scarcely  men,  submerged  in  igno- 
rance and  misery,  precipitate  them- 
selves still  deeper  into  the  pit.  Why 
are  they  thus  ?  Because  they  have  for 
thousands  of  years  been  the  victims 
of  their  philosophy,  which  teaches 
them  that  men  are  as  grass,  and 
the  grass  fadeth,  and  there  is  no 
more  greenness  upon  the  earth.They 
sit  in  the  shadow  and  let  the  cir- 
cumstances they  should  master  grip 
them,  until  they  cease  to  be  Men,  and 
are  made  to  dance  and  salaam  like 
puppets  in  a  play.  After  a  little  hour 
death  comes  and  hurries  them  off  to 
the  grave,  and  other  puppets  with 
64 


other  "pasteboard  passions  and  de- 
sires" take  their  place,  and  the  show 
goes  on  for  centuries. 

Go  to  India  and  see  what  sort 
of  civilization  is  developed  when  a 
nation  lacks  faith  in  progress  and 
bows  to  the  gods  of  darkness.  Under 
the  influence  of  Brahminism  genius 
and  ambition  have  been  suppressed. 
There  is  no  one  to  befriend  the  poor 
or  to  protect  the  fatherless  and  the 
widow.  The  sick  lie  untended.  The 
blind  know  not  how  to  see,  nor  the 
deaf  to  hear,  and  they  are  left  by  the 
roadside  to  die.  In  India  it  is  a  sin  to 
teach  the  blind  and  the  deaf  because 
their  affliction  is  regarded  as  a  pun- 
ishment for  offences  in  a  previous 
state  of  existence.  If  I  had  been  born 
in  the  midst  of  these  fatalistic  doc- 
trines, I  should  still  be  in  darkness, 
my  life  a  desert-land  where  no  cara- 
van of  thought  might  pass  between 
my  spirit  and  the  world  beyond. 

65 


practice 


The  Hindoos  believe  in  endurance, 
but  not  in  resistance  ;  therefore  they 
have  been  subdued  by  strangers. 
Their  history  is  a  repetition  of  that 
of  Babylon.  A  nation  from  afar  came 
with  speed  swiftly,  and  none  stum- 
bled, or  slept,  or  slumbered,  but  they 
brought  desolation  upon  the  land, 
and  took  the  stay  and  the  staff  from 
the  people,  the  whole  stay  of  bread, 
and  the  whole  stay  of  water,  the 
mighty  man,  and  the  man  of  war, 
the  judge,  and  the  prophet,  and  the 
prudent,  and  the  ancient,  and  none 
delivered  them.  Woe,  indeed,  is  the 
heritage  of  those  who  walk  sad- 
thoughted  and  downcast  through 
this  radiant,  soul-delighting  earth, 
blind  to  its  beauty  and  deaf  to  its 
music,  and  of  those  who  call  evil 
good,  and  good  evil,  and  put  dark- 
ness for  light,  and  light  for  darkness. 

What  care  the  weather-bronzed 
sons  of  the  West,  feeding  the  world 
66 


€I)c  practice  of  €>ptimfgm 


from  the  plains  of  Dakota,  for  the 
Omars  and  the  Brahmins?  They 
would  say  to  the  Hindoos,  "Blot  out 
your  philosophy,  dead  for  a  thousand 
years,  look  with  fresh  eyes  at  Real- 
ity and  Life,  put  away  your  Brah- 
mins and  your  crooked  gods,  and 
seek  diligently  for  Vishnu  the  Pre- 


server." 


Optimism  is  the  faith  that  leads  to 
achievement ;  nothing  can  be  done 
without  hope.  When  our  forefathers 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  American 
commonwealths,  what  nerved  them 
to  their  task  but  a  vision  of  a  free 
community  ?  Against  the  cold,  inhos- 
pitable sky,  across  the  wilderness 
white  with  snow,  where  lurked  the 
hidden  savage,  gleamed  the  bow  of 
promise,  toward  which  they  set  their 
faces  with  the  faith  that  levels  moun- 
tains, fills  up  valleys,  bridges  rivers 
and  carries  civilization  to  the  utter- 
most parts  of  the  earth.  Although 

67 


practice  of  £Dpt(mf$m 

the  pioneers  could  not  build  accord- 
ing to  the  Hebraic  ideal  they  saw, 
yet  they  gave  the  pattern  of  all  that 
is  most  enduring  in  our  country  to- 
day. They  brought  to  the  wilderness 
the  thinking  mind,  the  printed  book, 
the  deep-rooted  desire  for  self-gov- 
ernment and  the  English  common 
law  that  judges  alike  the  king  and 
the  subject,  the  law  on  which  rests 
the  whole  structure  of  our  society. 
It  is  significant  that  the  foun- 
dation of  that  law  is  optimistic.  In 
Latin  countries  the  court  proceeds 
with  a  pessimistic  bias.The  prisoner 
is  held  guilty  until  he  is  proved  in- 
nocent. In  England  and  the  United 
States  there  is  an  optimistic  pre- 
sumption that  the  accused  is  inno- 
cent until  it  is  no  longer  possible  to 
deny  his  guilt.  Under  our  system,  it 
is  said,  many  criminals  are  acquitted ; 
but  it  is  surely  better  so  than  that 
many  innocent  persons  should  suf- 
68 


practice  of  €>ptfmf m 

fer.The  pessimist  cries,  "There  is  no 
enduring  good  in  man !  The  tendency 
of  all  things  is  through  perpetual  loss 
to  chaos  in  the  end.  If  there  was  ever 
an  idea  of  good  in  things  evil,  it  was 
impotent,  and  the  world  rushes  on 
to  ruin."  But  behold,  the  law  of  the 
two  most  sober-minded,  practical 
and  law-abiding  nations  on  earth 
assumes  the  good  in  man  and  de- 
mands a  proof  of  the  bad. 

Optimism  is  the  faith  that  leads 
to  achievement.  The  prophets  of  the 
world  have  been  of  good  heart,  or 
their  standards  would  have  stood 
naked  in  the  field  without  a  defender. 
Tolstoi's  strictures  lose  power  be- 
cause they  are  pessimistic.  If  he  had 
seen  clearly  the  faults  of  America, 
and  still  believed  in  her  capacity  to 
overcome  them,  our  people  might 
have  felt  the  stimulation  of  his  cen- 
sure. But  the  world  turns  its  back 
on  a  hopeless  prophet  and  listens  to 

69 


Clje  $tmtfce  of  €>ptfm$m 

Emerson  who  takes  into  account 
the  best  qualities  of  the  nation  and 
attacks  only  the  vices  which  no  one 
can  defend  or  deny.  It  listens  to  the 
strong  man,  Lincoln,  who  in  times 
of  doubt,  trouble  and  need  does  not 
falter.  He  sees  success  afar,  and  by 
strenuous  hope,  by  hoping  against 
hope,  inspires  a  nation.  Through  the 
night  of  despair  he  says,  "All  is  well," 
and  thousands  rest  in  his  confidence. 
When  such  a  man  censures,  and 
points  to  a  fault,  the  nation  obeys, 
and  his  words  sink  into  the  ears  of 
men ;  but  to  the  lamentations  of  the 
habitual  Jeremiah  the  ear  grows  dull. 
Our  newspapers  should  remember 
this.  The  press  is  the  pulpit  of  the 
modern  world,  and  on  the  preachers 
who  fill  it  much  depends.  If  the  pro- 
test of  the  press  against  unrighteous 
measures  is  to  avail,  then  for  ninety- 
nine  days  the  word  of  the  preacher 
should  be  buoyant  and  of  good  cheer, 
70 


$ractfce 


so  that  on  the  hundredth  day  the 
voice  of  censure  may  be  a  hundred 
times  strong.  This  was  Lincoln's 
way.  He  knew  the  people;  he  be- 
lieved in  them  and  rested  his  faith  on 
the  justice  and  wisdom  of  the  great 
majority.  When  in  his  rough  and 
ready  way  he  said,  "You  can't  fool 
all  the  people  all  the  time,"  he  ex- 
pressed a  great  principle,  the  doc- 
trine of  faith  in  human  nature. 

The  prophet  is  not  without  honor, 
save  he  be  a  pessimist.  The  ecstatic 
prophecies  of  Isaiah  did  far  more  to 
restore  the  exiles  of  Israel  to  their 
homes  than  the  lamentations  of  Jer- 
emiah did  to  deliver  them  from  the 
hands  of  evil-doers. 

Even  on  Christmas  Day  do  men 
remember  that  Christ  came  as  a  pro- 
phet of  good?  His  joyous  optimism 
is  like  water  to  feverish  lips,  and  has 
for  its  highest  expression  the  eight 
beatitudes.  It  is  because  Christ  is 


Clje  $ractfce 

an  optimist  that  for  ages  he  has 
dominated  the  Western  world.  For 
nineteen  centuries  Christendom  has 
gazed  into  his  shining  face  and  felt 
that  all  things  work  together  for 
good.  St.  Paul,  too,  taught  the  faith 
which  looks  beyond  the  hardest 
things  into  the  infinite  horizon  of 
heaven,  where  all  limitations  are  lost 
in  the  light  of  perfect  understand- 
ing. If  you  are  born  blind,  search  the 
treasures  of  darkness.They  are  more 
precious  than  the  gold  of  Ophir. They 
are  love  and  goodness  and  truth  and 
hope,  and  their  price  is  above  rubies 
and  sapphires. 

Jesus  utters  and  Paul  proclaims  a 
message  of  peace  and  a  message  of 
reason,  a  belief  in  the  Idea,  not  in 
things,  in  love,  not  in  conquest.  The 
optimist  is  he  who  sees  that  men's 
actions  are  directed  not  by  squad- 
rons and  armies,  but  by  moral  power, 
that  the  conquests  of  Alexander  and 
72 


€I)e  practice  of  €>ptfmf$m 


Napoleon  are  less  abidingthan  New- 
ton's and  Galileo's  and  St.  Augus- 
tine's silent  mastery  of  the  world. 
Ideas  are  mightier  than  fire  and 
sword.  Noiselessly  they  propagate 
themselves  from  land  to  land,  and 
mankind  goes  out  and  reaps  the 
rich  harvest  and  thanks  God;  but 
the  achievements  of  the  warrior  are 
like  his  canvas  city,  "to-day  a  camp, 
to-morrow  all  struck  and  vanished, 
a  few  pit-holes  and  heaps  of  straw." 
This  was  the  gospel  of  Jesus  two 
thousand  years  ago.  Christmas  Day 
is  the  festival  of  optimism. 

Although  there  are  still  great  evils 
which  have  not  been  subdued,  and 
the  optimist  is  not  blind  to  them,  yet 
he  is  full  of  hope.  Despondency  has 
no  place  in  his  creed,  for  he  believes 
in  the  imperishable  righteousness  of 
God  and  the  dignity  of  man.  History 
records  man's  triumphant  ascent. 
Each  halt  in  his  progress  has  been 

73 


practice 


but  a  pause  before  a  mighty  leap  for- 
ward. The  time  is  not  out  of  joint.  If 
indeed  some  of  the  temples  we  wor- 
shipped in  have  fallen,  we  have  built 
new  ones  on  the  sacred  sites  loftier 
and  holier  than  those  which  have 
crumbled.  If  we  have  lost  some  of 
the  heroic  physical  qualities  of  our 
ancestors,  we  have  replaced  them 
with  a  spiritual  nobleness  that  turns 
aside  wrath  and  binds  up  the  wounds 
of  the  vanquished.  All  the  past  at- 
tainments of  man  are  ours ;  and  more, 
his  day-dreams  have  become  our 
clear  realities.  Therein  lies  our  hope 
and  sure  faith. 

As  I  stand  in  the  sunshine  of  a  sin- 
cere and  earnest  optimism,  my  ima- 
gination "  paints  yet  more  glorious 
triumphs  on  the  cloud-curtain  of  the 
future."  Out  of  the  fierce  struggle 
and  turmoil  of  contending  systems 
and  powers  I  see  a  brighter  spiritual 
era  slowly  emerge— an  era  in  which 
74 


practice  of  £Dptfmi$m 

there  shall  be  no  England,  no  France, 
no  Germany,  no  America,  no  this 
people  or  that,  but  one  family,  the 
human  race;  one  law,  peace;  one 
need,  harmony;  one  means,  labor; 
one  taskmaster,  God. 

If  I  should  try  to  say  anew  the 
creed  of  the  optimist,  I  should  say 
something  like  this:  "I  believe  in 
God,  I  believe  in  man,  I  believe  in  the 
power  of  the  spirit.  I  believe  it  is  a 
sacred  duty  to  encourage  ourselves 
and  others ;  to  hold  the  tongue  from 
any  unhappy  word  against  God's 
world,  because  no  man  has  any  right 
to  complain  of  a  universe  which  God 
made  good,  and  which  thousands  of 
men  have  striven  to  keep  good.  I  be- 
lieve we  should  so  act  that  we  may 
draw  nearer  and  more  near  the  age 
when  no  man  shall  live  at  his  ease 
while  another  suffers."  These  are 
the  articles  of  my  faith,  and  there 
is  yet  another  on  which  all  depends 

75 


practice  of  £Dptftttf$m 

—  to  bear  this  faith  above  every  tem- 
pest which  o verfloods  it,  and  to  make 
it  a  principle  in  disaster  and  through 
affliction.  Optimism  is  the  harmony 
between  man's  spirit  and  the  spirit  of 
God  pronouncing  His  works  good. 


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